After their midweek League Cup triumph over Charlton, Preston North End return to League One action this weekend with two games to catch up on. Uwe Rösler’s Brentford currently sit three points ahead of North End in the league having played two more games, but the Lilywhites now have an opportunity to leapfrog the London club, and could potentially climb as high as 3rd, dependent on other results.

Fellow promotion hopefuls Brentford are enjoying a fine run of form as of late, with 3 wins from their last 4 games. After a 1-1 draw with Colchester in midweek, The Bees will be looking to get back to winning ways in front of the home crowd, but it’ll be no easy task; North End have won their last 5 games in a row and show no signs of slowing.

At the beginning of last season, Preston North End FC announced a new initiative that included cheaper tickets for all, PNE-related fun, and, essentially, a bigger crowd and thus a better atmosphere for selected home games throughout the season. That initiative was called PNE Day, and the first of the 2011/2012 campaign will be held on Saturday, 24th September when the Lilywhites take on local club Tranmere Rovers.

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Preston North End ended Charlton Athletic’s unbeaten start to the season with a confident 2-0 win at The Valley. Going into the 2nd round Carling Cup clash, the Addicks were in fine form, but an almost unrecognisable North End team took the plaudits with an assertive performance and came out on top.

A somewhat fatigued North End side travel to The Valley tomorrow night for a League Cup clash against fellow promotion hopefuls, Charlton Athletic. With potentially seven games coming up in the space of three weeks for Preston, Phil Brown has admitted that he “will be making one or two changes” in order to retain the Lilywhites’ prolific league form.

Neil Mellor scored twice to propel North End to a 4-3 victory over Yeovil Town and a fourth consecutive win for the Lancashire club. After taking the lead early on through local lad Jamie Proctor, North End always looked the more dominant force and produced a scintillating attacking performance.

Questionable officiating from Yorkshire referee Carl Boyeson almost spoiled a great night at Deepdale after a series of dubious decisions, but Preston held on for the win and the three points with a battling display in which they could have scored so many more.

Phil Brown’s side will be hoping to make it 4 back-to-back wins on Friday when Terry Skiverton’s Yeovil Town make the 250 mile journey from Somerset. This clash will be the first time the two sides have ever met in a competitive fixture. After a somewhat shaky start to the season, North End registered three consecutive wins, keeping three clean sheets and netting five goals in the process, including a hundred-yard screamer from goalkeeper Iain Turner.

A controversial figure in football, Senegalese striker El-Hadji Diouf is better known for his exploits as a gobber than as a Nobber, but for the past couple of days, Preston gaffer Phil Brown has taken the fiesty forward under his wing, allowing him to train with the North End squad at their facilities in Springfields. The pair were briefly part of the same Bolton Wanderers setup under Sam Allardyce in 2005 – where Brown was assistant manager – and the South Shields sovereign has admitted that the two are good friends.

Preston North End striker Iain Hume may speak with a recognisably Scottish twang, but like a plethora of others in the modern game, when it comes to International duty, he doesn’t actually represent the country in which he was born. At one year old, Hume was probably still learning to walk and talk when his parents decided to leave Edinburgh and relocate to Ontario, Canada, but he didn’t ditch haggis for hockey sticks; Hume stayed true to his British roots and developed his football skills. As a Canadian citizen, Hume was eligible to join the international squad and received his first call up in February 2003 when he was playing for Dave Watson’s Tranmere Rovers.